RIVERSIDE  ESSAYS 

EDITED  BY 

ADA  L.  F.  SNELL 

ASSOCIATE   PROFESSOR   OF   ENGLISH 
MOUNT  HOLYOKE   COLLEGE 


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STUDIES  IN  NATURE  AND  LITERATURE.  By  John  Bur- 
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PROMOTING 
GOOD  CITIZENSHIP 


BY 

JAMES  BRYCE 


BOSTON    NEW  YORK    CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
iMicrsibr  pretfs  Cambcibge 


COPYRIGHT,    1909,   BY   YALE   UNIVERSITY    PRESS 
COPYRIGHT,    1913,    BY    ADA   L.   F.   SNELL 

ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 


R.   L.    S.   227 


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CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
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CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION vii 

INDOLENCE    I 

HOW    TO    OVERCOME    THE    OBSTACLES    TO   GOOD 
CITIZENSHIP    .  26 


The  two  essays  by  Mr.  James  Bryce  included  in  this  volume  are 
reprinted  by  permission  of  Yale  University  from  Mr.  Bryce's  lectures 
on  the  Dodge  Foundation,  published  in  book  form  by  the  Yale  Uni- 
versity Press  under  the  title  of  The  Hindrances  to  Good  Citizenship. 


INTRODUCTION 

MR.  BRYCE  has  for  a  long  time  been  a  man  of 
international  prominence.  His  wide  influence 
is  undoubtedly  due  to  many  causes,  but  it  may, 
in  general,  be  traced  to  two  characteristics: 
Mr.  Bryce  is  a  humanist  who  sympathetically 
watches  the  progress  of  nations  and  the  guiding 
of  governments;  he  is  also  a  historian.  In  his 
biographical  study  of  John  Richard  Green  he 
has  skillfully  analyzed  the  aptitudes  of  the 
historian,  and  in  so  doing  has  pointedly,  if 
unwittingly,  described  himself.  Accuracy,  he 
says,  —  a  desire  for  the  exact  truth,  —  keen 
observation,  sound  judgment,  imagination, 
and,  following  inevitably  from  these,  command 
of  literary  exposition,  are  the  powers  which  a 
historian  needs.  Each  of  these  qualities  Mr. 
Bryce  himself  possesses  in  large  measure.  It  is 
his  historical  power,  enabling  him  to  observe 
and  record  the  significant  phases  and  events  of 
human  life,  plus  his  sympathetic  interest  in  its 
vii 


INTRODUCTION 

present-day  manifestations  which  explain,  in 
some  degree,  his  singularly  eminent  position 
as  an  authority  on  matters  pertaining  to  human 
institutions  in  various  countries. 

Mr.  Bryce  was  born  in  northern  Ireland  in 
1838,  of  Scotch-Irish  parents;  and  he  combines 
in  his  nature  the  stalwart  intellectual  propen- 
sities of  the  Scot  and  the  artistic  attributes  of 
the  Celt.  He  was  educated  at  the  University 
of  Glasgow,  and  later  went  to  Oxford  where 
he  won  many  honors.  After  finishing  his  colle- 
giate work  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and 
practiced  law  in  London  until  1882.  At  the 
age  of  thirty-two  he  was  appointed  Regius 
Professor  of  Civil  Law  at  Oxford.  Up  to  this 
point  his  life  had  been  almost  exclusively  that 
of  a  student  and  a  scholar;  and  already  at  this 
time  he  was  recognized  as  a  man  of  remarkable 
historical  ability.  The  year  1880  marked  a 
change  in  his  life.  He  presented  himself  to  the 
workingmen  of  Tower  Hamlets,  London,  as  a 
candidate  for  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Mr.  Stead  tells  us  that  Mr.  Bryce,  in  this  first 
campaign,  addressed  his  open-air  audiences 
somewhat  after  the  manner  of  a  professor  lec- 


INTRODUCTION 

turing  in  a  classroom;  he  succeeded,  neverthe- 
less, in  getting  himself  elected,  and  for  over 
twenty-five  years  thereafter  was  a  member  of 
Parliament.  During  these  years  he  held  vari- 
ous responsible  offices  having  to  do  with  home 
and  foreign  administrative  work.  The  prac- 
tical results  of  his  political  influence  were 
advancement  in  public  education,  the  securing 
of  more  extensive  parks  and  open  country 
spaces  for  the  pleasure  of  the  poorer  classes, 
and  the  furtherance  of  international  peace.  In 
1907,  Mr.  Bryce  was  appointed  ambassador 
to  the  United  States,  which  office  he  resigned 
in  1913  to  carry  on  literary  work. 

Mr.  Bryce's  knowledge  is  the  result  not  only 
of  university  training  and  experience  in  public 
life,  but  also  of  varied  reading.  He  has  read 
art,  science,  history,  and  has  always  been  an 
interested  student  of  poetry.  In  speaking  once 
to  Americans  of  Swinburne,  he  suddenly 
paused  and  asked,  "Who  are  writing  your 
songs  and  stirring  your  heart,  —  or  is  n't  your 
heart  being  stirred?  Nothing  is  more  import- 
ant than  that  each  generation  and  each  land 
should  have  its  poets.  Each  oncoming  tide  of 
ix 


INTRODUCTION 

life,  each  age,  requires  and  needs  men  of  lofty 
thought  who  shall  dream  and  sing  for  it,  who 
shall  gather  up  its  tendencies  and  formulate 
its  ideals  and  voice  its  spirit,  proclaiming  its 
duties  and  awakening  its  enthusiasm,  through 
the  high  authority  of  the  poet  and  the  art  of  his 
verse."  How  extensively  Mr.  Bryce  has  read 
the  poets,  both  ancient  and  modern,  one  per- 
ceives from  the  references  and  allusions  in  his 
Studies  in  Contemporary  Biography. 

The  most  important  source  of  Mr.  Bryce's 
knowledge,  the  one  which  has  furnished  the 
material  for  nearly  all  his  books,  has  been  his 
first-hand  observation  and  study  of  many 
countries.  When  still  a  young  man  he  wandered 
alone  over  Mount  Ararat,  since  the  native 
guides  refused  to  follow  him  to  the  unknown 
wilds  of  that  lonely  peak.  He  visited  the 
Ottoman  Empire  in  1876,  and,  as  a  result  of 
his  investigations  there,  became  an  advocate 
of  the  Bulgarian  cause;  in  fact  it  was  his 
speeches  on  the  Eastern  Question  which  first 
made  him  prominent  politically.  Mr.  Bryce 
has  traveled  also  in  Iceland;  he  was  in  Africa 
just  previous  to  the  Boer  War;  he  has  been  all 
x 


INTRODUCTION 

over  South  America ;  and  he  knows  the  United 
States  as  few  Americans  know  it.  He  has 
studied  these  countries  with  great  faithfulness, 
observing  keenly  every  phase  of  the  political 
and  social  life.  An  interesting  sample  of  his 
method  of  gathering  information  is  found  in 
the  chapter  on  "The  Position  of  Women"  in 
The  American  Commonwealth.  When  traveling 
in  the  West  he  noticed  that  all  of  the  women 
seemed  so  very  well  dressed  that  apparently 
none  could  be  the  wife  or  daughter  of  a  work- 
ingman;  but  close  observation  dispelled  this 
illusion.  Idling  in  a  bookstore  one  day  in 
Oregon,  he  noticed  a  woman  who  was  asking 
for  a  certain  magazine.  After  her  departure 
he  asked  the  salesman  who  she  was,  and  found 
that  she  was  the  wife  of  a  workman,  and  the 
magazine  a  Paris  fashion  journal.  "This,"  says 
Mr.  Bryce,  "set  me  to  observing  female  dress 
more  closely,  and  it  turned  out  to  be  perfectly 
true  that  the  women  in  these  little  towns  were 
following  the  Parisian  fashions  very  closely, 
and  were,  in  fact,  ahead  of  the  majority  of 
English  ladies  belonging  to  the  professional 
and  mercantile  classes."  Thus  no  detail,  how- 
xi 


INTRODUCTION 

ever  trivial,  escapes  him;  the  pleasant  and 
unpleasant  phases  of  our  American  life,  our 
manners,  clothes,  scenery  have  all  been  noted 
and  reckoned  with  in  the  statement  of  tenden- 
cies and  conclusions. 

As  a  parliamentarian  Mr.  Bryce  is  said  to 
have  been  direct,  honest,  and  always  illumi- 
nating. His  ability  to  command  attention  was 
due  not  to  any  great  oratorical  gift,  but  rather 
to  his  scholarly  view  of  any  matter  under 
debate.  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  reports  that  the 
members  of  the  House  who  might  be  dining, 
smoking,  or  reading  in  the  rooms  assigned  for 
these  purposes,  would,  when  the  news  was 
passed  around  that  Mr.  Bryce  was  speaking, 
leave  these  pleasant  diversions,  and  betake 
themselves  with  great  speed  to  the  debating 
chamber.  "I  have  many  a  time,"  he  says, 
"heard  Conservative  members  murmur,  in 
tones  not  altogether  expressing  absolute  satis- 
faction at  the  disturbing  information,  'Bryce 
is  up  —  I  must  go  in  and  hear  what  he  has  to 
say.'  .  .  .  Everybody  knows  that  when  he 
speaks  it  is  because  he  has  something  to  say 
which  ought  to  be  spoken  and  therefore  ought 
xii 


INTRODUCTION 

to  be  heard."  Mr.  Bryce  was  able  to  command 
attention  also  because  of  his  reputation  as  a 
courageous  nonpartisan.  He  never  advocated 
a  measure  or  policy  for  mere  party  reasons  or 
for  personal  aggrandizement.  Not  infrequently 
he  has  fought  bravely  with  the  minority  of  his 
own  party,  and  has  at  times  suffered  bitter 
attacks,  as  when  he  remained  resolutely  pro- 
Boer  during  the  rampant  jingoism  of  the 
South  African  War.  But  however  widely  politi- 
cal enemies  might  differ  from  him,  they  re- 
spected his  sincerity  and  his  luminous  view  of 
governmental  problems.  It  is  further  charac- 
teristic of  Mr.  Bryce's  public  life  that  he  never, 
in  his  desire  for  the  welfare  of  his  own  country, 
lost  sight  of  what  is  due  other  nations.  In 
practice  as  well  as  in  precept  he  upheld  the 
doctrine  that  "patriotism  consists  not  in 
waving  a  flag,  but  in  striving  that  our  country 
shall  be  righteous  as  well  as  strong." 

Mr.  Bryce's  books  deal,  for  the  most  part, 
with  historical  subjects  and  present-day  govern- 
ments. The  Holy  Roman  Empire,  written  when 
he  was  only  twenty-four  years  old,  is  still 
regarded  by  able  historians  as  an  accurate  and 
xiii 


INTRODUCTION 

authoritative  work;  and,  in  the  judgment  of 
literary  critics,  it  is  written  with  so  much 
charm  of  style  that  it  is  destined  to  become  an 
English  classic.  All  of  the  books  which  have 
to  do  with  foreign  nations  are  characterized  by 
a  tactful,  faithful,  and  above  all  a  truthful, 
handling.  It  was  The  American  Commonwealth 
which  made  the  citizens  of  the  United  States 
regard  Mr.  Bryce  as  a  friend  of  the  Republic; 
but  he  is  not  so  regarded  because  he  has  always 
stroked  the  gleaming  pinions  of  the  American 
eagle.  Although  he  does  seem  to  share  the  hope 
universally  cherished  by  Americans  that  we 
shall,  in  spite  of  grave  national  defects,  "win 
out"  in  the  end,  he  has  nevertheless,  in  direct 
and  unadorned  statements,  pointed  out  our 
faults.  As  an  example  of  his  characteristic 
straightforwardness  of  speech,  take  the  follow- 
ing sentence:  "America  has  little  occasion  to 
think  of  foreign  affairs,  but  some  of  her  domes- 
tic difficulties  are  such  as  to  demand  that  care- 
ful observation  and  unbroken  reflection  which 
neither  her  executive  magistrates,  nor  her 
legislatures,  nor  any  leading  class  among  her 
people  now  give."  Mr.  Bryce  has  never  ceased 
xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

to  insist  that  America  suffers  from  lack  of 
honest,  courageous  leadership  in  dealing  with 
such  problems  as  municipal  evils  and  the  insid- 
ious influence  of  "vested  interests."  Our  heed- 
lessness  and  indifference  to  public  matters  is 
our  national  sin,  but  Mr.  Bryce  foresees  a  cure 
for  our  defects  in  the  increasing  zeal  with 
which  the  younger  generation  is  assuming  the 
public  burden;  but  how  great  must  be  its  zeal 
and  how  steady  its  purpose  if  anything  is  to  be 
accomplished,  one  is  made  poignantly  aware 
by  reading  the  account  of  the  Tammany  Ring 
in  The  American  Commonwealth. 

When  a  man  of  Mr.  Bryce's  ability  and 
experience  points  out  definitely  the  chief 
obstacles  to  good  citizenship  and  furthermore 
indicates  the  means  by  which  these  may  be 
overcome,  one  may  be  as  sure  that  he  will  say 
something  which  should  be  heeded  as  were  the 
members  of  the  House  when  he  was  a  parlia- 
mentarian. In  1909,  Mr.  Bryce  gave  at  Yale 
University  a  series  of  lectures  which  were  later 
published  by  the  Yale  University  Press  under 
the  title  Hindrances  to  Good  Citizenship.  The 
main  obstacles  to  good  citizenship  are  defined 
xv 


INTRODUCTION 

as  indolence,  private  self-interest,  and  party 
spirit. 

The  first  lecture, "  Indolence,"  brings  to  mind 
the  chapter  in  The  American  Commonwealth 
on  "The  War  Against  Bossdom,"  with  its 
vigorous  concluding  words,  "In  America,  as 
everywhere  else  in  the  world,  the  common- 
wealth suffers  more  often  from  apathy  or 
shortsightedness  in  the  upper  classes,  who 
ought  to  lead,  than  from  ignorance  or  reckless- 
ness in  the  humbler  classes,  who  generally  are 
ready  to  follow  when  wisely  led." 

In  the  second  lecture,  "Private  Self-Inter- 
est," Mr.  Bryce  states  the  causes  which  pro- 
duce a  body  of  citizens  who  care  more  about 
their  own  advancement  than  about  the  wel- 
fare of  the  country.  The  most  important  of 
these  causes  are  tariff  issues,  appropriations 
of  public  money  for  local  interests,  govern- 
mental contracts,  public  ofHceholding,  —  all 
representing  "the  insidious  power  of  money 
which  knows  how  to  play  upon  the  self-interest 
of  voters  and  legislators,  polluting  at  its  source 
the  spring  of  Civic  Duty." 

The  third  lecture  considers  party  spirit  as 
xvi 


INTRODUCTION 

a  hindrance  to  citizenship.  Mr.  Bryce  acknow- 
ledges the  practical  necessity  for  parties  in 
the  management  of  popular  governments,  and 
also  the  perplexing  difficulties  of  a  party 
leader  who  must  decide  between  conscience 
and  party.  There  is  nevertheless  but  one 
course  open  to  him:  he  must  follow  his  con- 
science; only  he  must  carefully  distinguish  be- 
tween conscience  and  angular  independence 
which  is  lacking  in  common  sense  and  in  will- 
ingness to  defer  to  others  in  unimportant  mat- 
ters. For  the  average  man  the  question  is  a 
simple  one;  relieved  of  the  burdens  of  party 
leadership,  he  should  follow  his  intelligence 
rather  than  his  party.  A  large  number  of  inde- 
pendent voters  secures  most  effectively  the 
right  administration  of  public  business. 

The  last  lecture  in  the  series,  "How  to 
Overcome  the  Obstacles  to  Good  Citizenship," 
suggests  various  means  by  which  a  more  satis- 
factory body  of  citizens  may  be  secured.  In 
method  and  style  this  lecture  is  illustrative 
of  the  author's  peculiar  strength  in  exposi- 
tion. 

Mr.  Bryce's  writings  are  remarkable  for  the 
xvii 


INTRODUCTION 

lucid  organization  of  a  wealth  of  detail  into 
significant  principles  and  sound  conclusions; 
for  vividness  in  the  presentation  of  whatever 
pertains  to  humanity,  and  for  gracious,  win- 
ning English.  One  finds  always  in  his  work 
simplicity  in  the  unfolding  of  material  which 
has  been  carefully  gathered  and  calmly  judged. 
There  is  perfect  clarity  in  the  handling  of  a 
mass  of  detail,  and  such  skillful  subordination 
of  it  and  masterly  emphasis  of  important  prin- 
ciples that  the  reader  easily  catches  the  bearing 
on  the  central  thought  of  every  illustration  or 
description.  There  is  also  in  the  writing  a 
solidity  and  firmness,  a  bracing  stalwartness  — 
qualities  which  are  the  result  of  the  writer's 
own  sturdy  nature.  But  this  is  not  all.  The 
author's  almost  novelistic  power  of  seeing  per- 
sons and  things  makes  his  writing  as  vivid  as 
a  story;  even  his  most  abstract  propositions  are 
tangible  and  real.  And  the  material  is,  more- 
over, so  sympathetically  and  earnestly  treated 
that  it  is  at  times  lifted  above  mere  pedestrian 
exposition  and  becomes  warm  with  the  feeling 
of  the  writer.  The  everyday  words  and  un- 
adorned sentences,  infused  with  the  spirit  of 
xviii 


INTRODUCTION 

the  one  who  writes,  become  potent  to  stir 
slumbering  ideals.  Suddenly  over  the  level 
way  of  mere  intellectual  matters  falls  a  dreamy 
light,  a  Celtic  graciousness  of  manner;  and  the 
reader  no  longer  journeys  along  a  mere  brown 
path,  but  sees  the  familiar  scenes  of  the  way 
idealized  by  the  touch  of  poetry.  The  value  of 
skillful  exposition  as  an  asset  for  leadership, 
or  for  the  accomplishment  of  any  other  pur- 
pose, Mr.  Bryce  fully  appreciates.  A  command 
of  language  is  a  power  possessed  by  nearly 
every  one  of  the  men,  eminent  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  whom  Mr.  Bryce  describes  in 
his  Studies  in  Contemporary  Biography.  By 
means  of  it  Mr.  John  Richard  Green  wrote  the 
most  brilliant  history  of  modern  times ;  through 
the  stirring  editorials  of  the  Nation,  Mr. 
Godkin  was  able  to  arouse  an  indifferent 
American  public  to  a  more  earnest  considera- 
tion of  the  national  welfare;  and  it  was  Mr. 
Gladstone's  gift  of  "noble  utterance"  which 
more  than  any  other  talent  enabled  him  for 
many  years  to  hold  an  authoritative  political 
position.  Mr.  Bryce's  own  rare  power  as  a 
writer  of  vigorous,  persuasive  English  is  one  of 
xix 


INTRODUCTION 

the  qualities  which  has  made  him  in  a  certain 
sense  a  citizen  of  the  world  with  an  almost 
world-wide  influence. 

However  helpful  Mr.  Bryce's  method  may 
be  for  the  student  who  is  attempting  to  under- 
stand and  master  the  technique  of  successful 
English,  it  is  the  subject-matter  which  is  pri- 
marily of  importance.  It  is  valuable  for  the 
student  since  it  may  serve  to  stimulate  the 
investigation  and  expression  of  certain  ques- 
tions connected  with  the  administration  of 
public  matters  in  his  own  town  or  city;  and  it 
may  also  suggest  the  explanation  and  judgment 
of  measures  proposed  to  secure  better  govern- 
ment, such  as  the  Referendum.  But  the  essen- 
tial worth  of  the  material  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
is  a  tonic  for  relaxed  vigilance  in  public  affairs. 
It  would  be  well  to  require  every  citizen  of 
the  United  States  to  read  in  school  days  The 
American  Commonwealth;  one  ventures  to  say 
that  there  would  be,  as  a  result,  a  steady  ad- 
vancement in  the  right  understanding  and  ful- 
fillment of  civic  duties;  but  even  a  limited 
acquaintance  with  Mr.  Bryce  should  serve  to 
define  in  clearer  terms  the  elements  of  a  sane 
xx 


INTRODUCTION 

and  effective  patriotism.  And  Mr.  Bryce's  own 
life,  unfalteringly  and  resolutely  devoted  to  a 
just  administration  of  governments,  together 
with  its  unfailing  graciousness  in  the  most  try- 
ing situations,  furnishes  an  invigorating  exam- 
ple of  the  truly  successful  statesman. 

ADA  L.  F.  SNELL. 


Promoting  Good  Citizenship 

INDOLENCE 

DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON,  being  once  asked  how 
he  came  to  have  made  a  blunder  in  his  fa- 
mous English  Dictionary,  is  reported  to  have 
answered,  "Ignorance,  Sir,  sheer  ignorance." 
Whoever  has  grown  old  enough  to  look  back 
over  the  wasted  opportunities  of  life  —  and  we 
all  of  us  waste  more  opportunities  than  we  use 
—  will  be  apt  to  ascribe  most  of  his  blunders  to 
sheer  indolence.  Sometimes  one  has  omitted 
to  learn  what  it  was  needful  to  learn  in  order  to 
proceed  to  action;  sometimes  one  has  shrunk 
from  the  painful  effort  required  to  reflect  and 
decide  on  one's  course,  leaving  it  to  Fortune  to 
settle  what  Will  ought  to  have  settled;  some- 
times one  has,  from  mere  self-indulgent  slug- 
gishness, let  the  happy  moment  slip. 

The  difference  between  men  who  succeed 
and  men  who  fail  is  not  so  much  as  we  com- 
i 


INDOLENCE 

monly  suppose  due  to  differences  in  intellect- 
ual capacity.  The  difference  which  counts  for 
most  is  that  between  activity  and  slackness; 
between  the  man  who,  observing  alertly  and 
reflecting  incessantly,  anticipates  contingencies 
before  they  occur,  and  the  lazy,  easy-going, 
slowly-moving  man  who  is  roused  with  diffi- 
culty, will  not  trouble  himself  to  look  ahead, 
and  so  being  taken  unprepared  loses  or  misuses 
the  opportunities  that  lead  to  fortune.  If  it  be 
true  that  everywhere,  though  perhaps  less  here 
than  in  European  countries,  energy  is  the  excep- 
tion rather  than  the  rule,  we  need  not  wonder 
that  men  show  in  the  discharge  of  civic  duty  the 
defects  which  they  show  in  their  own  affairs. 
No  doubt  public  affairs  demand  only  a  small 
part  of  their  time.  But  the  spring  of  self- 
interest  is  not  -strong  where  public  affairs  are 
concerned.  The  need  for  activity  is  not  contin- 
uously present.  A  duty  shared  with  many  others 
seems  less  of  a  personal  duty.  If  a  hundred,  a 
thousand,  ten  thousand  other  citizens  are  as 
much  bound  to  speak,  vote,  or  act  as  each  one 
of  us  is,  the  sense  of  obligation  becomes  to  each 
of  us  weak.  Still  weaker  does  it  become  when 

2 


INDOLENCE 

one  perceives  the  neglect  of  others  to  do  their 
duty.  The  need  for  the  good  citizen's  action, 
no  doubt,  becomes  then  all  the  greater.  But 
it  is  only  the  best  sort  of  citizen  that  feels  it  to 
be  greater.  The  Average  Man  judges  himself 
by  the  average  standard  and  does  not  see  why 
he  should  take  more  trouble  than  his  neigh- 
bours. Thus  we  arrive  at  a  result  summed  up 
in  the  terrible  dictum,  which  reveals  the  basic 
fault  of  democracy,  "What  is  Everybody's 
business  is  Nobody's  business." 

Of  indolence,  indifference,  apathy,  in  general, 
no  more  need  be  said.  It  is  a  sin  that  easily 
besets  us  all.  We  might  suppose  that  where 
public  affairs  are  concerned  it  would  decrease 
under  the  influence  of  education  and  the  press. 
But  several  general  causes  have  tended  to  in- 
crease it  in  our  own  generation,  despite  the 
increasing  strength  of  the  appeal  which  civic 
duty  makes  to  men  who  are,  or  if  they  cared 
might  be,  better  informed  about  public  affairs 
than  were  their  fathers. 

The  first  of  these  causes  is  that  manners  have 
grown  gentler  and  passions  less  angry.  A  chief 
duty  of  the  good  citizen  is  to  be  angry  when 

3 


INDOLENCE 

anger  is  called  for,  and  to  express  his  anger  by 
deeds,  to  attack  the  bad  citizen  in  office,  or 
otherwise  in  power,  to  expose  his  dishonesty,  to 
eject  him  from  office,  to  brand  him  with  an 
ignominy  which  will  prevent  his  returning  to 
any  post  of  trust.  In  former  days  indignation 
flamed  higher,  and  there  was  little  tenderness 
for  offenders.  Jehu  smote  the  prophets  of  Baal. 
Bad  ministers  —  and  no  doubt  sometimes  good 
ministers  also  —  were  in  England  beheaded 
on  Tower  Hill.  Everywhere  punishment  came 
quicker  and  was  more  severe,  though  to  be 
sure  it  was  often  too  harsh.  Nowadays  the 
arm  of  justice  is  often  arrested  by  an  indulgence 
which  forgets  that  the  true  aim  of  punishment 
is  the  protection  of  the  community.  The  very 
safeguards  with  which  our  slower  and  more 
careful  procedure  has  surrounded  trials  and 
investigations,  proper  as  such  safeguards  are 
for  the  security  of  the  innocent,  have  often  so 
delayed  the  march  of  justice  that  when  a  con- 
viction has  at  last  been  obtained,  the  offence 
has  begun  to  be  forgotten  and  the  offender 
escapes  with  a  trifling  penalty,  or  with  none. 
This  is  an  illustration  of  the  principle  that  as 
4 


INDOLENCE 

righteous  indignation  is  a  valuable  motive 
power  in  politics,  the  decline  in  it  means  a 
decline  either  in  the  standard  of  virtue  or  in  the 
standard  of  zeal,  possibly  in  both. 

Another  cause  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
the  enormous  growth  of  modern  states  has 
made  the  share  in  government  of  the  individual 
citizen  seem  infinitesimally  small.  In  an  aver- 
age Greek  republic,  he  was  one  of  from  two 
to  ten  thousand  voters.  In  England  or  France 
to-day  he  is  one  of  many  millions.  The  chance 
that  his  vote  will  make  any  difference  to  the 
result  is  so  slender  that  it  appears  to  him 
negligible.  We  are  proud,  and  justly  proud,  of 
having  adapted  free  government  to  areas  far 
vaster  than  were  formerly  thought  capable  of 
receiving  free  institutions.  It  was  hoped  that 
the  patriotism  of  the  citizen  would  expand 
with  the  magnitude  of  the  State.  But  this  did 
not  happen  in  Rome,  the  greatest  of  ancient 
republics.  Can  we  say  that  it  has  happened  in 
the  modern  world?  Few  of  us  realize  that 
though  our  own  share  may  be  smaller  our 
responsibility  increases  with  the  power  our 
State  exerts.  The  late  Professor  Henry  Sidg- 

S 


INDOLENCE 

wick  once  travelled  from  Davos  in  the  eastern- 
most corner  of  Switzerland  to  the  town  of 
Cambridge  in  England  and  back  again  to 
deliver  his  vote  against  Home  Rule  at  the 
general  election  of  1886,  though  he  knew  that 
his  own  side  would  have  a  majority  in  the  con- 
stituency. Those  who  knew  applauded,  his 
opponents  included,  but  I  fear  that  few  of  us 
followed  this  shining  example  of  civic  virtue. 

Thirdly,  the  highest,  because  the  most  diffi- 
cult, duty  of  a  citizen  is  to  fight  valiantly  for 
his  convictions  when  he  is  in  a  minority.  The 
smaller  the  minority,  and  the  more  unpopular 
it  is,  and  the  more  violent  are  the  attacks  upon 
it,  so  .much  the  louder  is  the  call  of  duty  to  de- 
fend one's  opinions.  To  withstand  the  "ardor 
civium  prava  iubentium"  —  to  face  "the 
multitude  hasting  to  do  evil"  —  this  is  the 
note  and  the  test  of  genuine  virtue  and  cour- 
age. Now  this  is,  or  seems  to  be,  a  more  for- 
midable task  the  vaster  the  community  be- 
comes. It  is  harder  to  make  your  voice  heard 
against  the  roar  of  ocean  than  against  the 
whistling  squall  that  sweeps  down  over  a 
mountain  lake. 

6 


INDOLENCE 

Lastly,  there  has  been  within  the  last  cen- 
tury a  great  accession  to  our  knowledge  of 
nature,  a  more  widely  diffused  and  developed 
interest  in  literature  and  art  as  well  as  in 
science.  This  development,  in  itself  fraught 
with  laudable  means  of  enjoyment,  has  had 
the  unforeseen  yet  natural  result  of  reducing 
the  interest  in  public  affairs  among  the  edu- 
cated classes,  while  the  ardour  with  which 
competitions  in  physical  strength  and  skill  are 
followed  has  in  like  manner  diverted  the 
thoughts  and  attention  of  the  less  educated  — 
and  indeed,  not  of  them  alone  but  of  many  also 
in  a  class  from  whom  better  things  might  have 
been  expected.  Politics,  in  fact,  have  nowadays 
to  strive  against  more  rival  subjects  attracting 
men's  eyes  and  minds  than  they  had  before 
scientific  discovery  and  art,  and  above  all, 
athletic  sports,  came  to  fill  newspapers  and 
magazines. 

But  so  far  from  being  less  important  than 
they  were,  politics  are  growing  in  every  coun- 
try more  important  the  wider  the  sphere  of 
governmental  action  becomes.  Nevertheless, 
even  in  England,  which  is  perhaps  slightly  less 

7 


INDOLENCE 

addicted  to  this  new  passion  for  looking  on  at 
and  reading  about  athletic  competitions  than 
are  North  America  and  Australia,  a  cricket  or 
football  match  or  a  horse-race  seems,  if  one 
may  judge  by  the  eager  throngs  that  snatch  the 
evening  newspapers,  to  excite  more  interest  in 
the  middle  as  well  as  in  the  richer  and  in  the 
upper  section  of  the  poorer  classes  than  does 
any  political  event. 

How  to  overcome  these  adverse  tendencies  is 
a  question  which  I  reserve  till  the  last  of  these 
lectures.  Meantime,  let  us  look  at  some  of  the 
forms  in  which  indifference  to  the  obligations 
of  citizenship  reveals  itself. 

The  first  duty  of  the  citizen  used  to  be  to 
fight,  and  to  fight  not  merely  against  foes  from 
another  State,  but  against  those  also  who, 
within  his  own  State,  were  trying  to  overturn 
the  Constitution  or  resist  the  laws.  It  is  a 
duty  still  incumbent  on  us  all,  though  the 
existence  of  soldiers  and  a  police  force  calls  us 
to  it  less  frequently.  The  omission  to  take  up 
arms  in  a  civil  strife  was  a  grave  offence  in  the 
republics  of  antiquity,  where  revolutions  were 
frequent,  as  they  are  to-day  in  some  of  the  states 
8 


INDOLENCE 

of  Latin  America.  When  respectable  people 
stayed  at  home  instead  of  taking  sword  and 
spear  to  drive  out  the  adherents  of  an  adven- 
turer trying  to  make  himself  Tyrant,  they  gave 
the  adventurer  his  chance:  and  in  any  case 
their  abstention  tended  to  prolong  a  civil  war 
which  would  end  sooner  when  it  was  seen  which 
way  the  bulk  of  the  people  inclined.  There  was 
accordingly  a  law  in  some  of  the  Greek  repub- 
lics that  every  citizen  must  take  one  side  or  the 
other  in  an  insurrection.  If  he  did  not,  he  was 
liable  to  punishment.  I  have  not  heard  of  any 
one  being  indicted  in  England  or  the  United 
States  for  failing  to  discharge  his  legal  duty  to 
join  in  the  hue  and  cry  after  a  thief,  or  to  rally 
to  the  sheriff  when  he  calls  upon  the  posse  comi- 
tatus  to  support  him  in  maintaining  law  and 
order.  But  possibly  an  indictment  would  still 
lie;  and  in  England  we  have  within  recent 
times  enrolled  bodies  of  special  constables  from 
the  civil  population  to  aid  in  maintaining  pub- 
lic tranquillity. 

More  peaceful  times  have  substituted  for  the 
duty  of  fighting  the  duty  of  voting.   But  even 
in  small  communities  the  latter  duty  has  been 
9 


INDOLENCE 

often  neglected.  In  Athens  the  magistrates 
used  to  send  round  the  Scythian  bowmen,  who 
acted  as  their  police,  to  scour  the  streets  with  a 
rope  coloured  with  vermilion,  and  drag  towards 
the  Pnyx  (the  place  of  assembly),  citizens  who 
preferred  to  lounge  or  to  mind  what  they  called 
their  own  business,  as  if  ruling  the  State  was 
not  their  business.  So  in  modern  Switzerland 
some  cantons  have  enacted  laws  fining  those 
who,  without  reasonable  excuse,  neglect  to 
vote.1  This  is  the  more  remarkable  because  the 
Swiss  have  a  good  record  in  the  matter  of  vot- 
ing, better,  I  think,  than  any  other  European 
people.  Such  a  law  witnesses  not  to  exceptional 
negligence  but  to  an  exceptionally  high  stand- 
ard of  duty.  In  Britain  we  sometimes  bring  to 
the  polls  at  a  parliamentary  election  eighty, 
or  even  more  than  eighty,  per  cent  of  our  regis- 
tered electors,  which  is  pretty  good  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  register  may  have  been 
made  up  eleven  months  earlier,  so  that  many 
electors  are  sure  to  have  moved  elsewhere.  At 
elections  for  local  authorities  a  much  smaller 
proportion  vote;  and  I  fancy,  though  I  have  no 
1  This  example  has,  I  believe,  been  followed  in  Belgium. 
10 


INDOLENCE 

figures  at  hand,  that  in  France,  Belgium,  and 
still  more  in  Italy  the  percentage  voting  at  all 
sorts  of  elections  is  less  than  in  Switzerland  or 
in  Britain.  The  number  who  vote  does  not 
perfectly  measure  the  personal  sense  of  duty 
among  electors,  because  an  efficient  party  or- 
ganization may,  like  the  Scythian  bowmen, 
sweep  voters  who  do  not  care  but  who  can  be 
either  driven  to  the  polls  or  paid  to  go.  Unless 
it  is  money  that  takes  the  voters  there,  it  is  well 
that  they  should  go;  for  it  helps  to  form  the 
habit. 

Another  form  of  civic  apathy  is  the  reluctance 
to  undertake  civic  functions.  In  England 
this  is  not  discoverable  in  any  want  of  candi- 
dates for  Parliament.  They  abound,  though 
sometimes  the  fittest  men  prefer  ease  or  busi- 
ness success  to  public  life.  But  seats  upon  local 
authorities  and  especially  upon  municipal 
councils  and  district  councils,  seldom  attract 
the  best  ability  of  the  local  community.  In 
English  and  Scottish  cities  the  leading  com- 
mercial, financial,  and  professional  men  do  not 
often  appear  as  candidates,  leaving  the  work  to 
persons  who  are  not  indeed  incompetent,  being 
II 


INDOLENCE 

usually  intelligent  business  men,  but  whose 
education  and  talents  are  sometimes  below  the 
level  of  the  functions  which  these  bodies  dis- 
charge. No  great  harm  has  followed,  because 
our  city  councillors  are  almost  always  honest. 
Local  public  opinion  is  vigilant  and  exacting, 
so  a  high  standard  of  probity  is  maintained. 
But  municipalities  have  latterly  embarked  on 
so  many  kinds  of  new  work,  and  the  revenues 
of  the  greater  cities  have  so  grown,  that  not 
merely  business  capacity  and  experience,  but  a 
large  grasp  of  economic  principles  is  required. 
This  is  no  less  true  here  in  America,  yet  I  gather 
that  here  it  is  found  even  more  difficult  than  in 
Europe  to  secure  the  presence  of  able  adminis- 
trators in  city  councils. 

A  man  engaged  in  a  large  business  who  takes 
up  municipal  work  may  doubtless  find  that  he 
is  making  a  pecuniary  sacrifice.  But  if  he  has 
already  an  income  sufficient  for  his  comfort, 
may  it  not  be  his  best  way  of  serving  his  fellow- 
men? 

Many  such  men  do  serve  as  governors  or 
trustees  of  educational  or  other  public  institu- 
tions which  make  nearly  as  great  a  demand  on 

12 


INDOLENCE 

their  time  as  the  membership  of  a  public  body 
would.  Others,  in  Europe,  if  less  frequently 
here,  give  to  amusement  much  more  of  their 
leisure  than  the  needs  of  recreation  and  health 
require.  This  is  often  due  rather  to  thought- 
lessness than  to  a  conscious  indifference  to  the 
call  of  duty. 

Some  of  your  political  reformers  have  dwelt 
on  the  difficulties  which  party  organizations, 
specially  powerful  in  the  United  States,  place 
in  the  way  of  educated  and  public-spirited  men 
seeking  to  enter  politics.  There  may  be  truth 
in  this  as  regards  the  lower  districts  of  the 
larger  cities,  but  one  can  scarcely  think  it  gen- 
erally true  even  of  the  cities.  More  frequently 
it  is  alleged  that  the  work  of  local  politics  is 
disagreeable,  bringing  a  man  into  contact  with 
vulgar  people  and  exposing  him  to  misrepre- 
sentation and  abuse. 

This  is  an  excuse  for  abstention  which  ought 
never  to  be  heard  in  a  democratic  country.  If 
politics  are  anywhere  vulgar,  they  ought  not 
to  be  suffered  to  remain  vulgar,  as  they  will 
remain  if  the  better  educated  citizens  keep 
aloof.  They  involve  the  highest  interests  of  the 

13 


INDOLENCE 

nation  or  the  city.  The  way  in  which  they  are 
handled  is  a  lesson  to  the  people  either  in  hon- 
esty or  in  knavery.  The  best  element  in  a 
community  cannot  afford  to  let  its  interests  be 
the  sport  of  self-seekers  or  rogues.  Moreover, 
the  loss  by  maladministration  or  robbery, 
large  as  it  may  sometimes  be,  is  a  less  serious 
evil  than  is  the  damage  to  public  morals.  If 
those  who  have  the  manners  and  speak  the 
language  of  educated  men  refuse  to  enter 
practical  politics,  they  must  cease  to  complain 
of  a  want  of  refinement  in  politics.  In  reality, 
good  manners  are  the  best  way  in  which  to 
meet  rudeness;  and  he  who  is  too  thin-skinned 
to  disregard  abuse  confesses  his  own  want  of 
manliness.  The  mass  of  the  people,  even  those 
who  are  neither  educated  nor  fastidious,  know 
honesty  when  they  see  it,  and  discount  such 
abuse.  When  a  man  is  firm  and  upright, 
nothing  better  braces  him  up  and  fits  him  to 
serve  his  country  than  to  be  attacked  on  the 
platform  or  in  the  press  for  faults  he  has  not 
committed.  It  puts  him  on  his  mettle.  It 
toughens  his  fibre.  It  gives  him  self-control 
and  teaches  him  how  to  d9  right  in  the  way 

14 


INDOLENCE 

which  is  least  exposed  to  misrepresentation.  It 
nerves  his  courage  for  the  far  more  difficult 
trials  which  come  when  friends  as  well  as  oppo- 
nents censure  him  because  honour  and  obedi- 
ence to  his  conscience  have  required  him  to 
take  an  unpopular  line  and  speak  unwelcome 
truths.  A  little  persecution  for  righteousness' 
sake  is  a  wholesome  thing. 

The  deficient  sense  of  civic  duty,  though 
most  frequently  noted  in  the  form  of  a  neglect 
to  vote,  is  really  more  general  and  serious  in  the 
neglect  to  think.  Were  it  possible  to  have  sta- 
tistics to  show  what  percentage  of  those  who 
vote  reflect  upon  the  vote  they  have  to  give, 
there  would  in  no  country  be  found  a  large 
percentage.  Yet  what  is  the  worth  of  a  vote 
except  as  the  expression  of  a  considered  opin- 
ion? The  act  of  marking  a  ballot  is  nothing 
unless  the  mark  carries  with  it  a  judgment,  the 
preference  of  a  good  candidate  to  a  bad  one, 
the  approval  of  one  policy  offered  the  people, 
the  rejection  of  another.  The  citizen  owes  it 
to  the  community  to  inform  himself  about  the 
questions  submitted  for  his  decision,  and  weigh 
the  arguments  on  each  side;  or  if  the  issue  be 

IS 


INDOLENCE 

one  rather  of  persons  than  of  policies,  to  learn 
all  he  can  regarding  the  merits  of  the  candidates 
offered  to  his  choice. 

How  many  voters  really  trouble  themselves 
to  do  this?  One  in  five?  One  in  ten?  One  in 
twenty  ? 

It  may  be  asked,  How  can  they  do  it?  What 
means  have  they  of  studying  public  questions 
and  reaching  just  conclusions  ?  If  the  means  are 
wanting,  can  we  blame  them  if  they  do  not 
think?  If  they  feel  they  do  not  understand, 
can  we  blame  them  if  they  do  not  vote?  In 
every  free  country  the  suffrage  is  now  so  wide 
that  the  great  majority  of  the  voters  have  to 
labour  for  their  daily  bread.  In  most  European 
countries  many  are  imperfectly  educated.  In 
the  rural  districts  they  read  with  difficulty, 
see  either  no  newspaper  or  one  which  helps 
them  but  little,  lead  isolated  lives  in  which 
there  are  scanty  opportunities  for  learning  what 
passes,  so  that  the  best  they  can  do  seems  to 
be  to  ask  advice  from  the  priest,  or  the  village 
schoolmaster,  or  take  advice  from  their  land- 
lord or  their  employer.  In  the  northern  parts 
of  the  United  States  and  also  in  Canada,  the 
16 


INDOLENCE 

native  population  has  indeed  received  a  fair 
instruction,  and  reads  newspapers;  but  the 
mass  of  voters  is  swelled  by  a  crowd  of  recent 
immigrants,  most  of  whom  cannot  read  English 
and  know  nothing  of  your  institutions. 

Broadly  speaking,  in  modern  countries  ruled 
by  universal  suffrage  the  Average  Citizen  has 
not  the  means  of  adequately  discharging  the 
function  which  the  constitution  throws  upon 
him  of  following,  examining,  and  judging 
those  problems  of  statesmanship  which  the 
ever-growing  range  of  government  adminis- 
tration and  the  ever-increasing  complexity  of 
our  civilization  set  before  him  as  a  voter  to 
whom  issues  of  policy  are  submitted. 

As  things  stand,  he  votes,  when  he  votes,  not 
from  knowledge,  but  as  his  party  or  his  favour- 
ite newspaper  bids  him,  or  according  to  his 
predilection  for  some  particular  leader.  Unless 
it  be  held  that  every  man  has  a  natural  and 
indefeasible  right  to  a  share  in  the  government 
of  the  country  in  which  he  resides,  the  ground 
for  giving  that  share  would  seem  to  be  the  com- 
petence of  the  recipient  and  the  belief  that  his 
sharing  will  promote  the  general  welfare.  So 

17 


INDOLENCE 

one  may  almost  say  that  the  theory  of  universal 
suffrage  assumes  that  the  Average  Citizen  is  an 
active,  instructed,  intelligent  ruler  of  his  coun- 
try.1 The  facts  contradict  this  assumption. 

Does  this  mean  that  widely  extended  suffrage 
is  a  failure,  and  that  the  Average  Man  is  not  a 
competent  citizen  in  a  democracy? 

This  question  brings  us  to  reflect  on  another 
branch  of  civic  duty  not  yet  mentioned.  Be- 
sides the  civic  duties  already  described  of 
Fighting,  Voting,  and  Thinking,  there  is  an- 
other duty.  It  is  the  duty  of  Mutual  Help,  the 
duty  incumbent  on  those  who  possess,  through 
their  knowledge  and  intelligence,  the  capacity 
of  Instruction  and  Persuasion  to  advise  and  to 
guide  their  less  competent  fellow-citizens.  No 
sensible  man  ought  ever  to  have  supposed  that 
under  such  conditions  as  large  modern  com- 
munities present,  the  bulk  of  the  citizens  could 
vote  wisely  from  their  own  private  knowledge 
and  intelligence.  Even  in  small  cities,  such  as 
was  Sicyon  in  the  days  of  Aratus,  or  Boston  in 

1  It  may  no  doubt  be  argued  that  even  if  he  is  not  competent, 
it  is  better  he  should  be  within  than  without  the  voting  class. 
But  this  was  not  the  ground  generally  taken  by  those  who  brought 
in  universal  suffrage. 

it 


INDOLENCE 

the  days  of  James  Otis,  the  Average  Man 
needed  the  help  of  his  more  educated  and 
wiser  neighbours.  While  communities  remained 
small,  it  was  easy  to  get  this  help.  But  now  the 
swift  and  vast  growth  of  states  and  cities  has 
changed  everything.  Private  talk  counts  for 
less  when  the  richer  citizens  dwell  apart  from 
the  poorer;  their  opportunities  of  meeting  are 
fewer,  and  there  is  less  friendliness,  if  also  less 
dependence,  in  the  relation  of  the  employed  to 
the  employer.  Public  meetings  do  not  give 
nearly  all  that  the  Average  Man  needs,  not 
to  add  that  being  got  together  to  present  one 
set  of  facts  and  arguments  and  deliberately  to 
ignore  the  other,  they  do  not  put  him  in  a  fair 
position  to  judge.  Besides,  the  men  who  most 
need  instruction  are  usually  those  who  least 
come  to  meetings  to  receive  it. 

To  fill  this  void  the  newspapers  have  arisen, 

-  organs  purporting  to  supply  the  materials 

required  for  the  formation  of  political  opinion. 

Whatever  the  services  of  the  newspaper  in 

other  respects,  it  has  the  inevitable  defect  of 

superseding,  with  most  of  those  who  read  it, 

the  exercise  of  independent  thought.  The  news- 

19 


INDOLENCE 

paper  —  I  speak  generally,  for  there  are  some 
brilliant  exceptions  —  is,  in  Europe  even  more 
than  here,  almost  always  partisan  in  its  views, 
often  partisan  in  its  selection  of  facts  or  at  least 
in  its  way  of  stating  them.  Presenting  one  side 
of  a  case,  addressing  chiefly  those  who  are 
already  adherents  of  that  side,  putting  a 
colour  on  the  events  it  reports,  —  it  serves  up 
to  the  reader  ideas,  perhaps  only  mere  phrases 
or  catchwords,  which  confirm  him  in  his  pre- 
possessions, and  by  its  daily  iteration  makes 
him  take  them  for  truths.  Seldom  has  he  the 
leisure,  still  more  seldom  the  impulse  or  the 
patience,  to  scrutinize  these  ideas  for  himself 
and  form  his  own  judgment.  He  is  glad  to  be 
relieved  of  the  necessity  for  thinking,  because 
thinking  is  hard  work.  Indolence  again!  The 
habit  of  mind  that  is  formed  by  hasty  reading, 
and  especially  by  the  reading  of  newspapers 
and  magazines  in  which  the  matter,  excellent 
as  parts  of  it  often  are,  is  so  multifarious  that 
one  topic  diverts  attention  from  the  others, 
tends  to  a  general  dissipation  and  distraction 
of  thought.  It  is  a  habit  which  tells  upon  us  all 
and  makes  continuous  reflection  and  a  critical 
2O 


INDOLENCE 

or  logical  treatment  of  the  subjects  deserving 
reflection  more  irksome  to  us  in  the  full  sunlight 
of  to-day  than  it  was  to  those  whom  we  call  our 
benighted  ancestors. 

This  is  only  one  form  of  that  supersession  of 
the  practice  of  thinking  by  the  vice  commonly 
called  "the  reading  habit"  which  is  profoundly 
affecting  the  intellectual  life  of  our  time.  Yet 
as  steady  thinking  was  never  really  common 
even  among  the  educated,  the  difference  from 
earlier  days  is  not  so  correctly  described  by 
saying  that  people  think  less  than  formerly,  as 
by  noting  that  while  people  read  more,  and 
while  far  more  people  read,  the  ratio  of  think- 
ing to  reading  does  not  increase  either  in  the 
individual  or  in  the  mass,  and  may  possibly 
be  decreasing.  Intelligence  and  independence 
of  thought  have  not  grown  in  proportion  to  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge.  The  number  of  per- 
sons who  both  read  and  vote  is  in  England  and 
France  more  than  twenty  times  as  great  as  it 
was  seventy  years  ago.  The  percentage  of  those 
who  reflect  before  they  vote  has  not  kept  pace 
either  with  popular  education  or  with  the 
extension  of  the  suffrage. 

21 


INDOLENCE 

The  persons  who  constitute  that  percentage 
are,  and  must  for  the  reasons  already  given 
continue  for  some  time  to  be,  only  a  fraction, 
in  some  countries  a  small  fraction,  of  the  voting 
population.  But  the  fraction  might  be  made 
much  larger  than  it  is.  The  citizens  who  stand 
above  their  fellows  in  knowledge  and  mental 
power  ought  to  set  an  example,  not  only  by 
themselves  thinking  more  and  thinking  harder 
about  public  affairs  than  most  of  them  do,  but 
also  by  exerting  themselves  to  stimulate  and  aid 
their  less  instructed  or  more  listless  neighbours. 
The  voter,  it  is  said,  should  be  independent. 
Yes.  But  independence  does  not  mean  isola- 
tion. He  must  not  commit  his  personal  respon- 
sibility to  the  keeping  of  another.  Yes.  But 
personal  responsibility  does  not  mean  the  vain 
conceit  of  knowledge  and  judgment  where 
knowledge  is  wanting  and  judgment  is  un- 
trained. 

Just  as  his  religion  throws  upon  every  Chris- 
tian the  duty  of  loving  his  neighbour  and  giv- 
ing practical  expression  to  his  love  by  helping 
his  neighbour,  succouring  him  in  the  hour  of 
need,  trying  to  rescue  him  from  sin,  seeking  to 
22 


INDOLENCE 

guide  his  steps  into  the  way  of  peace,  so  civic 
duty  requires  each  of  us  to  raise  the  level  of 
citizenship  not  merely  by  ourselves  voting  and 
bearing  a  share  in  political  agitation,  but  by 
trying  to  diffuse  among  our  fellow-citizens 
whose  opportunities  have  been  less  favourable, 
the  knowledge  and  the  fairness  of  mind  and  the 
habit  of  grappling  with  political  questions 
which  a  democratic  government  must  demand 
even  from  the  Average  Man.  Democracy,  they 
say,  is  based  on  Equality.  But  in  no  form  of 
government  is  leadership  so  essential.  A  multi- 
tude without  intelligent,  responsible  leaders 
whom  it  respects  and  follows  is  a  crowd  ready 
to  become  the  prey  of  any  self-seeking  knave. 
Nor  is  it  true  that  because  men  value  equality 
they  reject  eminence.  They  are  always  glad 
to  be  led  if  some  one,  eschewing  pretension  and 
condescension,  speaking  to  them  with  respect, 
but  also  with  that  authority  which  knowledge 
and  capacity  imply,  will  point  out  the  path  and 
give  them  the  lead  for  which  they  are  looking. 
To  do  this  has  now,  in  our  great  cities,  become 
more  difficult  than  it  used  to  be,  because  men 
of  different  classes  and  different  occupations 


INDOLENCE 

do  not  know  one  another  as  well  as  they  once 
did,  and  economic  conflicts  have  made  work- 
ingmen  suspicious.  But  there  are  those  in  our 
English  and  Scottish  cities  who  do  it  success- 
fully, and  I  have  never  heard  that  it  is  resented. 
It  is  largely  a  matter  of  tact,  and  of  knowing 
how  to  express  that  genuine  sense  of  human 
fellowship  which  is  commoner  in  the  richer 
class  than  the  constraint  and  shyness  that  are 
supposed  to  beset  Englishmen  sometimes  allow 
to  appear. 

If  you  and  we,  both  here  and  in  Britain,  are 
less  active  than  we  should  be  in  this  and  other 
forms  of  civic  work,  the  fault  lies  in  our  not 
caring  enough  for  our  country.  It  is  easy  to 
wave  a  flag,  to  cheer  an  eminent  statesman,  to 
exult  in  some  achievement  by  land  or  sea.  But 
our  imaginations  are  too  dull  to  realize  either 
the  grandeur  of  the  State  in  its  splendid  oppor- 
tunities for  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  masses, 
or  the  fact  that  the  nobility  of  the  State  lies 
in  its  being  the  true  child,  the  true  exponent, 
of  the  enlightened  will  of  a  right-minded  and 
law-abiding  people.  Absorbed  in  business  or 
pleasure,  we  think  too  little  of  what  our  mem- 
24 


INDOLENCE 

bership  in  a  free  nation  means  for  the  happiness 
of  our  poorer  fellow-citizens.  The  eloquent 
voice  of  a  patriotic  reformer  sometimes  breaks 
our  slumber.  But  the  daily  round  of  business 
and  pleasure  soon  again  fills  the  mind,  and 
public  duty  fades  into  the  background  of  life. 
This  dulness  of  imagination  and  the  mere 
indolence  which  makes  us  neglect  to  stop  and 
think,  are  a  chief  cause  of  that  indifference 
which  chokes  the  growth  of  civic  duty.  It  is 
because  a  great  University  like  this  is  the  place 
where  the  imagination  of  young  men  may  best 
be  quickened  by  the  divine  fire,  because  the 
sons  of  a  great  University  are  those  who  may 
best  carry  with  them  into  after  life  the  inspira- 
tion which  history  and  philosophy  and  poetry 
have  kindled  within  its  venerable  walls,  that 
I  have  ventured  to  dwell  here  on  the  special 
duty  which  those  who  enjoy  these  privileges 
owe  to  their  brethren,  partners  in  the  citizen- 
ship of  a  great  republic. 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTA- 
CLES TO  GOOD   CITIZENSHIP 

IN  the  preceding  three  lectures1  the  chief 
hindrances  to  the  discharge  of  civic  duty  have 
been  considered.  Let  us  now  go  on  to  inquire 
what  can  be  done  to  remove  these  hindrances 
by  grappling  with  those  faults  or  weaknesses 
in  the  citizen  to  which  they  are  due.  When 
symptoms  have  been  examined,  one  looks  about 
for  remedies. 

We  have  seen  that  of  the  three  causes  as- 
signed, Indolence,  Selfish  Personal  Interest, 
and  Party  Spirit,  the  first  is  the  most  common, 
the  second  the  most  noxious,  the  third  the  most 
excusable,  yet  also  the  most  subtle,  and  per- 
haps the  most  likely  to  affect  the  class  which 
takes  the  lead  in  politics  and  is  incessantly 
employed  upon  its  daily  work.  Whether  the 
\nfluence  of  these  causes,  or  of  any  of  them,  is 
increasing  with  that  more  complete  democrati- 

1  The  two  lectures  reprinted  in  this  volume  are  the  first  and 
last  of  a  series  of  four  given  by  Mr.  Bryce  at  Yale  University. 

26 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

zation  of  government  which  we  see  going  on  in 
Europe,  is  a  question  that  cannot  yet  be  an- 
swered. Fifty  years  may  be  needed  before 
it  can  be  answered,  for  new  tendencies  both 
for  good  and  for  evil  are  constantly  emerg- 
ing and  affecting  one  another  in  unpredictable 
ways. 

The  remedies  that  may  be  applied  to  any 
defects  in  the  working  of  governments  are 
some  of  them  Mechanical,  some  of  them  Eth- 
ical. By  Mechanical  remedies  I  understand 
those  which  consist  in  improving  the  structure 
or  the  customs  and  working  devices  of  govern- 
ment, i.e.,  the  laws  and  the  institutions  or 
political  methods,  by  Ethical  those  which 
affect  the  character  and  spirit  of  the  people. 
If  you  want  to  get  more  work  and  better  work 
done  in  any  industry,  you  may  either  improve 
the  machinery,  or  the  implements,  by  which 
the  work  is  done,  or  else  improve  the  strength 
and  skill  of  the  men  who  run  the  machinery 
and  use  the  tools.  In  doing  the  former,  you 
sometimes  do  the  latter  also,  for  when  the 
workman  has  finer  tools,  he  is  led  on  to  attempt 
more  difficult  work,  and  thus  not  only  does  his 
27 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

own  skill  become  more  perfect,  but  his  interest 
in  the  work  is  likely  to  be  increased. 

Although  in  politics  by  far  the  most  real  and 
lasting  progress  may  be  expected  from  raising 
the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  the  citizens,  still 
improvements  in  the  machinery  of  government 
must  not  be  undervalued.  To  take  away  from 
bad  men  the  means  and  opportunities  by  which 
they  may  work  evil,  to  furnish  good  men  with 
means  and  opportunities  which  make  it  easier 
for  them  to  prevent  or  overcome  evil,  is  to 
render  a  great  service.  And  as  laws  which 
breathe  a  high  spirit  help  to  educate  the  whole 
community,  so  does  the  presence  of  opportuni- 
ties for  reform  stimulate  and  invigorate  the 
best  citizens  in  their  efforts  after  better  things. 

I  will  enumerate  briefly  some  of  the  remedies 
that  may  be  classed  as  Mechanical  because 
they  consist  in  alterations  of  institutions  or 
methods. 

Two  of  these  need  only  a  few  passing  words, 
because  they  are  so  sweeping  as  to  involve  the 
whole  fabric  of  government,  and  therefore  too 
large  to  be  discussed  here. 

One  is  propounded  by  those  thinkers  whom, 
28 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

to  distinguish  them  from  the  persons  who 
announce  themselves  as  enemies  of  all  society, 
we  may  call  the  Philosophical  Anarchists, 
thinkers  who  are  entitled  to  respectful  consid- 
eration because  their  doctrine  represents  a 
protest  that  needs  to  be  made  against  the  con- 
ception of  an  all-engulfing  State  in  which  indi- 
vidual initiative  and  self-guided  development 
might  be  merged  and  lost.  They  desire  to  get 
rid  of  the  defects  of  government  by  getting  rid 
of  government  itself;  that  is  to  say,  by  leaving 
men  entirely  alone  without  any  coercive  con- 
trol, trusting  to  their  natural  good  impulses  to 
restrain  them  from  harming  one  another.  In 
such  a  state  of  things  there  would  be  no  Citi- 
zenship, properly  so  called,  but  only  the  isola- 
tion of  families,  or  perhaps  of  individuals  — 
for  it  is  not  quite 'clear  how  far  the  family  is 
expected  to  remain  in  the  Anarchist  paradise 
-  an  isolation  more  or  less  qualified  by  bro- 
therly love.  We  are  so  far  at  present  from  a 
prospect  of  reaching  the  conditions  needed  for 
such  an  amelioration  that  it  is  enough  to  note 
this  view  and  pass  on. 

A  second  and  diametrically  opposite  cure  for 
29 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

the  evils  of  existing  society  comes  from  those 
who  are  commonly  termed  Socialists  or  Collec- 
tivists.  It  consists  in  so  widely  enlarging  the 
functions  of  government  as  to  commit  to  it  not 
merely  all  the  work  it  now  performs  of  defend- 
ing the  country,  maintaining  order,  enacting 
laws,  and  enforcing  justice  between  man  and 
man,  but  also  the  further  work  of  producing 
and  distributing  all  commodities,  allotting  to 
each  man  his  proper  labour  and  proper  remun- 
eration, or  possibly,  instead  of  giving  any 
pecuniary  remuneration,  providing  each  man 
with  what  he  needs  for  life.  Under  this  regime 
two  of  the  hindrances  to  good  citizenship  would 
be  much  reduced.  There  ought  to  be  less  in- 
difference to  politics  when  everybody's  interest 
in  the  management  of  public  concerns  had  been 
immensely  increased  by  the  fact  that  he  found 
himself  dependent  on  the  public  officials  for 
everything.  Nobody  could  plead  that  he  was 
occupied  by  his  own  private  business,  because 
his  private  business  would  have  vanished.  So 
also  selfish  personal  interest  in  making  gains 
out  of  government  must  needs  disappear  when 
private  property  itself  had  ceased  to  exist. 

30 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

Whether,  however,  self-interest  might  not  still 
find  means  of  influencing  public  administration 
in  ways  beneficial  to  individual  cupidity,  and 
whether  personal  selfishness  might  not  be  even 
more  dangerous,  under  such  conditions,  in 
proportion  to  the  extended  range  and  power  of 
government,  —  this  is  another  question  which 
cannot  be  discussed  till  some  definite  scheme 
for  the  allotment  of  work  and  of  remuneration 
(if  any)  shall  have  been  propounded.  Party 
Spirit  would  evidently,  in  a  Collectivistic 
State,  pass  into  new  forms.  It  might,  however, 
become  more  potent  than  ever  before.  But 
that  again  would  depend  on  the  kind  of  scheme 
for  the  reshaping  of  economic  society  that  had 
been  adopted. 

We  may  pass  from  these  suggestions  for  the 
extinction,  or  reconstruction  on  new  lines,  of 
the  existing  social  and  political  system  to  cer- 
tain minor  devices  for  improving  the  structure 
and  methods  of  government  which  have  been 
put  forward  as  likely  to  help  the  citizen  to  dis- 
charge his  duties  more  efficiently. 

One  of  these  is  the  system  of  Proportional 
Representation.  It  is  argued  that  if  electoral 
31 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

areas  were  created  with  more  than  two  mem- 
bers each,  and  if  each  elector  was  either  allowed 
to  vote  for  a  number  of  candidates  less  than 
the  number  to  be"  chosen,  or  was  allowed  to 
concentrate  all  his  votes  upon  one  candidate, 
or  more,  according  to  the  number  to  be  chosen, 
two  good  results  would  follow.  The  will  of  the 
electors  would  be  more  adequately  and  exactly 
expressed,  because  the  minority,  or  possibly 
more  than  one  minority,  as  well  as  the  majority, 
would  have  everywhere  its  representative. 
The  zeal  of  the  electors  would  be  stimulated, 
because  in  each  district  a  section  of  opinion 
not  large  enough  to  have  a  chance  of  winning 
an  election,  if  there  were  but  one  member,  and 
accordingly  now  apathetic,  because  without 
hope,  would  then  be  roused  to  organize  itself 
and  to  take  a  warmer  interest  in  public  affairs. 
The  Proportional  system  is,  therefore,  advo- 
cated as  one  of  those  improvements  in  machin- 
ery which  would  react  upon  the  people  by 
quickening  the  pulses  of  public  life.  Some 
experiments  have  already  been  made  in  this 
direction.  Those  tried  in  England  did  not  win 
general  approval  and  have  been  dropped.  That 

32 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

which  is  still  in  operation  in  the  State  of  Illinois 
has  not,  if  my  informants  are  right,  given  much 
satisfaction.  But  the  plan  is  said  to  work  well 
both  in  Belgium  and  in  some  of  the  cantons 
of  Switzerland;  so  one  may  hope  that  further 
experiments  will  be  attempted.  It  deserves 
your  careful  study,  but  it  is  too  complicated 
and  opens  too  many  side  issues  to  be  further 
discussed  now  and  here.1 

Attempts  have  been  made  in  some  places  to 
overcome  the  indifference  of  citizens  to  their 
duty  by  fining  those  who,  without  sufficient 
excuse,  fail  to  vote.  This  plan  of  Obligatory 
Voting,  as  it  is  called,  finds  favour  in  some 
Swiss  cantons  and  in  Belgium,  but  is  too 
uncongenial  to  the  habits  of  England  or  of  the 
United  States  to  be  worth  considering  as  a 
practical  measure  in  either  country.  Moreover, 
the  neglect  to  vote  is  no  very  serious  evil  in 
either  country,  at  least  as  regards  the  more 
important  elections.  Swiss  legislation  on  the 
subject  is  evidence  not  so  much  of  indifference 

1  Since  the  above  was  written  a  Royal  Commission  has  been 
appointed  in  Britain  to  examine  divers  questions  relating  to 
elections,  and  is  investigating  this,  among  other  plans. 

33 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

among  the  citizens  of  that  country  as  of  the 
high  standard  of  public  duty  they  are  expected 
to  reach. 

When  we  come  to  the  proposals  made  both 
here  and  in  England  for  the  reference  of  pro- 
posals to  a  direct  popular  vote,  we  come  to  a 
question  of  real  practical  importance.  I  wish 
that  I  had  time  to  state  to  you  and  to  examine 
the  arguments  both  for  and  against  this  mode 
of  legislation,  which  has  been  practised  for 
many  years  in  Switzerland  with  a  virtually 
unanimous  approval,  and  has  been  applied 
pretty  freely  in  some  of  your  States.  It  has 
taken  two  forms.  One  is  the  so-called  Initiative, 
under  which  a  section  of  the  electors  (being  a 
number,  or  a  proportion,  prescribed  by  law) 
may  propose  a  law  upon  which  the  people  vote. 
This  is  being  tried  in  Switzerland,  but  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  gather,  has  not  yet  proved 
its  utility.  The  balance  of  skilled  opinion 
seems  to  incline  against  it.  The  other  is  called 
the  Referendum,  and  consists  in  the  submission 
to  popular  vote  of  measures  already  passed  by 
the  legislative  body.  In  this  form  the  reference 
of  laws  to  the  people  undoubtedly  sharpens  the 

34 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

interest  of  the  ordinary  citizen  in  the  conduct 
of  public  affairs.  The  Swiss  voters,  at  any  rate, 
take  pains  to  inform  themselves  on  the  merits 
of  the  measures  submitted  to  them.  These  are 
widely  and  acutely  canvassed  at  public  meet- 
ings, and  in  the  press.  A  large  vote  is  usually 
cast,  and  all,  whether  or  no  they  approve  the 
result,  agree  that  it  is  an  intelligent,  not  a 
heedless,  vote.  The  Swiss  do  not  seem  to  think 
that  the  power  and  dignity  of  the  legislature  is 
weakened,  as  some  might  expect  it  to  be,  when 
their  final  voice  is  thus  superseded  by  that  of 
the  people.  All  I  need  now  ask  you  to  note  and 
remember  is  that  the  practice  of  bringing  polit- 
ical issues  directly  before  the  people,  whatever 
its  drawbacks,  does  tend  to  diminish  both  that 
indolence  and  indifference  which  is  pretty  com- 
mon among  European  voters.  It  requires  every 
citizen  to  think  for  himself  and  deliver  his  vote 
upon  all  the  more  important  measures,  and  it 
also  reduces  the  power  of  that  Party  Spirit 
which  everywhere  distracts  men's  minds  from 
the  real  merits  of  the  questions  before  the 
country.  When  a  law  is  submitted  to  the  Swiss 
people  for  their  judgment,  their  decision  nowise 

35 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

affects  either  the  Executive  or  the  Legislature. 
The  law  may  be  rejected  by  the  people,  but  the 
officials  who  drafted  the  law  continue  to  hold 
office.  The  party  which  brought  it  in  and  car- 
ried it  through  the  Legislature  is  not  deemed 
to  have  been  censured  or  weakened  by  the  fact 
of  its  ultimate  rejection.  That  party  spirit  is 
less  strong  m  Switzerland  than  in  any  other 
free  country  (except  perhaps  Norway)  may  be 
largely  attributed  to  this  disjunction  of  the 
deciding  voice  in  legislation  from  those  gov- 
ernmental organs  which  every  political  party 
seeks  to  control.  The  Swiss  voter  is  to-day  an 
exceptionally  intelligent  and  patriotic  citizen, 
fitter  to  exercise  the  function  of  direct  legisla- 
tion than  perhaps  any  other  citizen  in  Europe, 
and  the  practice  of  directly  legislating  has 
doubtless  helped  to  train  him  for  the  function. 
It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  the  cir- 
cumstances of  that  little  republic  and  its  can- 
tons are  too  peculiar  to  make  it  safe  to  draw 
inferences  from  Swiss  experience  to  large  coun- 
tries like  Britain  and  France,  the  political  life 
of  which  is  highly  centralized.  The  States  of 
your  Union  may  appear  to  offer  a  better  field, 

36 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

and  the  results  of  the  various  experiments 
which  some  of  them  (such  as  Oklahoma)  are 
trying  will  be  watched  with  interest  by  Euro- 
peans. 

In  considering  the  harm  done  to  civic  duty  by 
selfish  personal  interests  we  were  led  to  observe 
that  the  fewer  points  of  contact  between  gov- 
ernment and  the  pecuniary  interests  of  private 
citizens,  the  better  both  for  the  purity  of  gov- 
ernment and  for  the  conscience  of  the  private 
citizen.  How  far  government  ought  to  include 
within  its  functions  schemes  for  increasing 
national  wealth,  otherwise  than  by  such 
means  (being  means  which  a  government  alone 
can  employ  because  to  be  effective  they  must 
be  done  on  a  great  scale)  as  the  improving  of 
education,  the  diffusing  of  knowledge,  the  pro- 
viding means  of  transportation,  the  conserva- 
tion of  natural  resources,  and  so  forth,  may  be 
matter  for  debate.  But  at  any  rate  government 
ought  to  avoid  measures  tending  to  enrich  any 
one  person  or  group  of  persons  at  the  expense 
of  the  citizens  generally.  Common  justice 
requires  that.  Accordingly,  all  contracts  should 
be  made  on  the  terms  best  for  the  public,  and  if 

37 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

possible  by  open  bidding.  Franchises,  if  not 
reserved  by  the  public  authority  for  itself, 
should  be  granted  only  for  limited  times  and  so 
as  to  secure  the  interests  of  the  community, 
whether  by  way  of  a  rent  payable  to  the  city  or 
county  treasury  or  otherwise.  Public  employ- 
ees should  not  be  made  into  a  privileged  class, 
to  which  there  is  given  larger  pay  than  other 
workers  of  the  same  class  and  capacity  receive. 
All  bills  promoted  by  a  private  person,  firm, 
or  company  looking  to  his  or  their  pecuniary 
advantage  ought  to  be  closely  scrutinized  by 
some  responsible  public  authority.  In  England 
we  draw  a  sharp  distinction  between  such  bills 
and  general  public  legislation,  and  we  submit 
the  former  to  a  quasi-judicial  examination  by 
a  Parliamentary  committee  in  order  to  avoid 
possible  jobs  or  scandals  or  losses  to  the  public. 
As  respects  general  legislation,  i.  e.,  that  which 
is  not  in  its  terms  local  or  personal,  it  may  be 
difficult  or  impossible  to  prevent  a  law  from 
incidentally  benefiting  one  group  or  class  of 
men  and  injuring  another.  But  everything  that 
can  be  done  ought  to  be  done  to  prevent  any 
set  of  men  from  abusing  legislation  to  serve 
38 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

their  own  interest.  If  there  be  truth  in  what 
one  hears  about  the  groups  which  in  France, 
Belgium,  and  Germany  have,  through  political 
pressure,  obtained  by  law  bounties  benefiting 
their  industries,  or  tariffs  specially  favourable 
to  their  own  commercial  enterprises,  the  danger 
that  the  general  taxpayer,  or  the  consumer, 
may  be  sacrificed  to  these  private  interests,  is  a 
real  danger.  To  remove  the  occasion  and  the 
opportunities  for  the  exercise  of  such  pressure, 
which  is  likely  to  be  often  exerted  in  a  covert 
way  and  to  warp  or  pervert  the  legislator's 
mind,  is  to  diminish  a  temptation  and  to  re- 
move a  stumbling  block  that  lies  in  the  path 
of  civic  duty.  Whether  a  man  be  in  theory  a 
Protectionist  or  a  Free  Trader,  whether  or  not 
he  desires  to  nationalize  public  utilities,  he 
must  recognize  the  dangers  incident  to  the 
passing  of  laws  which  influential  groups  of 
wealthy  men  may  have  a  personal  interest  in 
promoting  or  resisting,  because  they  offer  a 
prospect  of  gain  sufficiently  large  to  make  it 
worth  while  to  "get  at"  legislatures  and  offi- 
cials. Such  dangers  arise  in  all  governments. 
That  which  makes  them  formidable  in  democ- 

39 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

racies  is  the  fact  that  the  interest  of  each  indi- 
vidual citizen  in  protecting  himself  and  the 
public  against  the  selfish  groups  may  be  so 
small  an  interest  that  everybody  neglects  it, 
and  the  groups  get  their  way. 

As  we  have  been  considering  improvements 
in  the  machinery  of  government,  this  would  be 
a  fitting  place  for  a  discussion  of  what  you  call 
Primary  Election  Laws,  which  are  intended 
both  to  reduce  the  power  of  party  organiza- 
tions and  to  stimulate  the  personal  zeal  of  the 
voter  by  making  it  easier  for  him  to  influence 
the  selection  of  a  candidate.  We  have,  how- 
ever, in  Europe,  nothing  corresponding  to  the 
Primary  Laws  of  American  States,  nothing 
which  recognizes  a  political  party  as  a  concrete 
body,  nothing  which  deals  with  the  mode  of 
selecting  candidates;  and  many  of  you  doubt- 
less know  better  than  I  do  what  has  been 
the  effect  of  these  American  enactments  and 
whether  they  have  really  roused  the  ordinary 
citizen  to  bestir  himself  and  to  assert  his  inde- 
pendence of  such  party  organizations  as  may 
have  heretofore  interfered  with  it.  Europeans 
do  not  take  kindly  to  the  notion  of  giving 
40 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

statutory  recognition  to  a  Party,  and  they 
doubt  whether  the  astuteness  of  those  whom 
you  call  "machine  politicians"  may  not  suc- 
ceed in  getting  hold  of  the  new  statutory  Pri- 
maries as  they  did  of  the  old  ones.  Be  the  merits 
of  the  new  legislation  what  they  may,  one  must 
hope  that  its  existence  will  not  induce  the 
friends  of  reform  to  relax  their  efforts  to  reduce 
in  other  ways  the  power  of  political  "Ma- 
chines." 

One  obvious  expedient  to  which  good  citizens 
may  resort  for  keeping  other  citizens  up  to  the 
mark  is  to  be  found  in  the  enactment  and 
enforcement  of  stringent  laws  against  breaches 
of  public  trust.  I  took  occasion,  in  referring  to 
the  practices  of  bribery  and  treating  at  elec- 
tions, to  note  the  wholesome  effect  of  the  statute 
passed  in  England  in  1883  for  repressing  those 
offences.  Although  St.  Paul  has  told  us  that  he 
who  is  under  grace  does  not  need  to  be  under 
the  law,  Christianity  has  not  yet  gone  far 
enough  to  enable  any  of  us  to  dispense  with  the 
moral  force  law  can  exert,  both  directly  through 
the  penalties  it  imposes  and  indirectly  through 
the  type  of  conduct  which  it  exhorts  the  com- 

41 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

munity  to  maintain.  Laws  may  do  much  to 
raise  and  sustain  the  tone  of  all  the  persons 
engaged  in  public  affairs  as  officials  or  as  legisla- 
tors, not  only  by  appealing  to  their  conscience, 
but  by  giving  them  a  quick  and  easy  reply  to 
those  who  seek  improper  favours  from  them. 
A  statute  may  express  the  best  conscience  of 
the  whole  people  and  set  the  standard  they 
approve,  even  where  the  practice  of  most  in- 
dividuals falls  short  of  the  standard.  If  the 
prosecuting  authorities  and  the  courts  do  their 
duty  unflinchingly,  without  regard  to  the 
social  position  of  the  offender,  a  statute  may 
bring  the  practice  of  ordinary  men  up  to  the 
level  of  that  collective  conscience  of  the  nation 
which  it  embodies. 

In  every  walk  of  life  a  class  of  persons  con- 
stantly subject  to  a  particular  set  of  tempta- 
tions is  apt  to  form  habits,  due  to  the  pressure 
of  those  temptations,  which  are  below  what 
the  conscience  of  the  better  men  in  the  com- 
munity approves.  The  aim  of  legislation,  as 
expressing  that  best  conscience  of  the  whole 
community,  ought  to  be  to  correct  or  extirpate 
those  habits  and  make  each  particular  class 
42 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

understand  that  it  is  not  to  be  excused  because 
it  has  special  temptations  and  thinks  its  own 
sins  venial.  Even  the  men  who  yield  to  the 
temptations  peculiar  to  their  own  class  are 
willing  to  join  in  condemning  those  who  yield 
to  some  other  kind  of  temptation.  Thus  the 
"better  conscience"  may  succeed  in  screwing 
up  one  class  after  another  to  a  higher  level. 
But  the  enactment  of  a  law  is  not  enough.  It 
must  be  strictly  enforced.  Procedure  must  be 
prompt.  Juries  must  be  firm.  Technicalities 
must  not  be  suffered  to  obstruct  the  march  of 
justice.  Sentences  must  be  carried  out,  else  the 
statute  will  become,  as  statutes  often  have 
become,  a  record  of  aspiration  rather  than  of 
accomplishment. 

To  contrive  plans  by  which  the  interest  of 
the  citizen  in  public  affairs  shall  be  aroused  and 
sustained,  is  far  easier  than  to  induce  the 
citizen  to  use  and  to  go  on  using,  year  in  and 
year  out,  the  contrivances  and  opportunities 
provided  for  his  benefit.  Yet  it  is  from  the 
heart  and  will  of  the  citizen  that  all  real  and 
lasting  improvements  must  proceed.  In  the 
words  of  the  Gospel,  it  is  the  inside  of  the  cup 
43 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

and  platter  that  must  be  made  clean.  The  cen- 
tral problem  of  civic  duty  is  the  ethical  prob- 
lem. Indifference,  selfish  interests,  the  excesses 
of  party  spirit,  will  all  begin  to  disappear  as 
civic  life  is  lifted  on  to  a  higher  plane,  and 
as  the  number  of  those  who,  standing  on  that 
higher  plane,  will  apply  a  strict  test  to  their 
own  conduct  and  to  that  of  their  leaders,  real- 
izing and  striving  to  discharge  their  responsi- 
bilities, goes  on  steadily  increasing  until  they 
come  to  form  the  majority  of  the  people.  What 
we  have  called  "the  better  conscience"  must 
be  grafted  on  to  the  "wild  stock"  of  the  natu- 
ral Average  Man. 

How  is  this  to  be  done?  The  difficulty  is  the 
same  as  that  which  meets  the  social  reformer 
or  the  preacher  of  religion. 

One  must  try  to  reach  the  Will  through  the 
Soul.  The  most  obvious  way  to  begin  is  through 
the  education  of  those  who  are  to  be  citizens, 
moral  education  combined  with  and  made  the 
foundation  for  instruction  in  civic  duty.  This 
is  a  task  which  the  Swiss  alone  among  Euro- 
pean nations  seem  to  have  seriously  under- 
taken. Here  in  America  it  has  become  doubly 

44 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

important  through  the  recent  entrance  into 
your  community  of  a  vast  mass  of  immigrants, 
most  of  them  ignorant  of  our  language,  still 
more  of  them  ignorant,  not  only  of  your  insti- 
tutions, but  of  the  general  principles  and  habits 
of  free  government.  Most  of  them  doubtless 
belong  to  races  of  high  natural  intelligence,  and 
many  of  them  have  the  simple  virtues  of  the 
peasant.  You  are  providing  for  all  of  them 
good  schools,  and  their  children  will  soon  be- 
come Americans  in  speech  and  habits,  quite 
patriotic  enough  so  far  as  flag-waving  goes. 
But  they  will  not  so  soon  or  so  completely 
acquire  your  intellectual  and  moral  standard, 
or  imbibe  your  historical  and  religious  tradi- 
tions. There  is  no  fear  but  what  they  will 
quickly  learn  to  vote.  To  some  Europeans  you 
seem  to  have  been  overconfident  in  intrusting 
them  with  a  power  which  most  of  them  cannot 
yet  have  learned  to  use  wisely.  That  however 
you  have  done,  and  as  you  hold  that  it  cannot 
now  be  undone,  your  task  must  now  be  to  teach 
them,  if  you  can,  to  understand  your  institu- 
tions, to  think  about  the  vote  they  have  to 
give,  and  to  realize  the  responsibilities  which 
45 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

the  suffrage  implies  as  these  were  realized 
by  your  New  England  forefathers  when  they 
planted  free  commonwealths  in  the  wilderness 
nearly  three  centuries  ago. 

Valuable  as  instruction  may  be  in  fitting  the 
citizen  to  comprehend  and  judge  upon  the 
issues  which  his  vote  determines,  there  must 
also  be  the  will  to  apply  his  knowledge  for  the 
public  good.  What  appeal  shall  be  made  to 
him? 

We  —  I  say  "we"  because  this  is  our  task  in 
Europe  no  less  than  it  is  yours  here  —  we  may 
appeal  to  his  enlightened  self-interest,  making 
self-interest  so  enlightened  that  it  loses  its 
selfish  quality.  We  can  remind  him  of  all  the 
useful  work  which  governments  may  accom- 
plish when  they  are  conducted  by  the  right  men 
in  the  right  spirit.  Take,  for  instance,  the  work 
to  be  performed  in  those  cities  wherein  so  large 
and  increasing  a  part  of  the  population  now 
dwell.  How  much  remains  to  be  done  to  make 
cities  healthier,  to  secure  better  dwellings  for 
the  poor,  to  root  out  nests  of  crime,  to  remove 
the  temptations  to  intemperance  and  gambling, 
to  bring  within  the  reach  of  the  poorest  all 
46 


possible  facilities  both  for  intellectual  progress 
and  for  enjoying  the  pleasures  of  art  and  music! 
How  much  may  we  do  so  to  adorn  the  city 
with  parks  and  public  buildings  as  to  make  its 
external  aspect  instil  the  sense  of  beauty  into 
its  inhabitants  and  give  them  a  fine  pride  in  it! 
These  are  some  of  the  tasks  which  cannot  safely 
be  intrusted  to  a  municipality  unless  its  govern- 
ment is  above  suspicion,  unless  men  of  probity 
and  capacity  are  placed  in  power,  unless  the 
whole  community  extends  its  sympathy  to  the 
work  and  keeps  a  vigilant  eye  upon  all  the 
officials.  Municipal  governments  cannot  be 
encouraged  to  own  public  utilities  so  long  as 
there  is  a  risk  that  somebody  may  own  muni- 
cipal governments.  Have  we  not  here  a  strong 
motive  for  securing  purity  and  efficiency  in  city 
administration?  Is  it  not  the  personal  interest 
of  every  one  of  us  that  the  city  we  dwell  in 
should  be  such  as  I  have  sought  to  describe? 
Nothing  makes  more  for  happiness  than  to  see 
others  around  one  happy.  The  rich  residents 
need  not  grudge  —  nor  indeed  would  your  rich 
residents  grudge,  for  there  is  less  grumbling 
among  the  rich  tax  payers  here  than  in  Europe 

47 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

•—  taxation  which  they  could  see  was  being 
honestly  spent  for  the  benefit  of  the  city.  The 
interest  each  one  of  us  has  as  a  member  of 
a  city  or  a  nation  in  seeing  our  fellow-citizens 
healthy,  peaceful,  and  happy  is  a  greater  inter- 
est, if  it  be  measured  in  terms  of  our  own 
real  enjoyment  of  life,  than  is  that  interest,  of 
which  we  so  constantly  are  reminded,  which  we 
have  in  making  the  State  either  wealthy  by  the 
development  of  trade,  or  formidable  to  foreign 
countries  by  its  armaments. 

We  may  also  appeal  to  every  citizen's  sense 
of  dignity  and  self-respect.  We  may  bid  him 
recollect  that  he  is  the  heir  of  rights  and  privi- 
leges which  you  and  our  ancestors  fought  for, 
and  which  place  him,  whatever  his  birth  or 
fortune,  among  the  rulers  of  his  country.  He 
is  unworthy  of  himself,  unmindful  of  what  he 
owes  to  the  Constitution  that  has  given  him 
these  functions,  if  he  does  not  try  to  discharge 
them  worthily.  These  considerations  are  no 
doubt  familiar  to  us  Englishmen  and  Ameri- 
tans,  though  we  may  not  always  feel  their  force 
as  deeply  as  we  ought.  To  the  new  immigrants 
of_whom  I  have  already  spoken  they  are  un- 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

familiar;  yet  to  the  best  among  these  also  they 
have  sometimes  powerfully  appealed.  You  had, 
in  the  last  generation,  no  more  high-minded 
and  patriotic  citizen  than  the  German  exile  of 
1849,  the  late  Mr.  Carl  Schurz. 

When  every  motive  has  been  invoked,  and 
every  expedient  applied  that  can  stimulate  the 
sense  of  civic  duty,  one  never  can  feel  sure 
that  the  desired  result  will  follow.  The  moral 
reformer  and  the  preacher  of  religion  have  the 
same  experience.  The  ebbs  and  flows  of  ethical 
life  are  beyond  the  reach  of  scientific  predic- 
tion. There  are  times  of  awakening,  "times  of 
refreshing  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,"  as 
your  Puritan  ancestors  said,  but  we  do  not 
know  when  they  will  come  nor  can  we  explain 
why  they  come  just  when  they  do.  Every  man 
can  recall  moments  in  his  own  life  when 
the  sky  seemed  to  open  above  him,  and  when 
his  vision  was  so  quickened  that  all  things 
stood  transfigured  in  a  purer  and  brighter  radi- 
ance, when  duty,  and  even  toil  done  for  the 
sake  of  duty,  seemed  beautiful  and  full  of 
joy. 

You  remember  Wordsworth's  lines  — 

49 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

"Hence,  in  a  season  of  fair  weather, 
Though  inland  far  we  be, 
Our  souls  have  sight  of  that  celestial  sea 
That  brought  us  hither." 

If  we  survey  the  wide  field  of  European  his- 
tory, we  shall  find  that  something  like  this 
happens  with  nations  also.  They,  too,  have 
moments  of  exaltation,  moments  of  depression. 
Their  ideals  rise  and  fall.  They  are  for  a  time 
filled  with  a  spirit  which  seeks  truth,  which 
loves  honour,  which  is  ready  for  self-sacrifice; 
and  after. a  time  the  light  begins  to  fade  from 
the  hills  and  this  spirit  lingers  only  among  the 
best  souls. 

Such  a  spirit  is  sometimes  evoked  by  a  great 
national  crisis  which  thrills  all  hearts.  This 
happened  to  England  or  at  least  to  a  large  part 
of  the  people  of  England,  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  It  happened  to  Germany  in  the  days 
of  the  War  of  Liberation,  and  to  Italy  when  she 
was  striving  to  expel  the  Austrians  and  the 
petty  princes  who  ruled  by  Austria's  help.  You 
here  felt  it  during  the  War  of  Secession.  Some- 
times, and  usually  at  one  of  these  crises,  a  great 
man  stands  out  who  helps  to  raise  the  feeling 
of  his  people  and  inspire  them  with  his  own  lofty 

59 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

thoughts  and  aims.  Such  a  man  was  Mazzini, 
seventy  years  ago  in  Italy.  Such  were  Wash- 
ington and  Lincoln,  the  former  more  by  his 
example  than  by  his  words,  the  latter  by  both, 
yet  most  by  the  quiet  patience,  dignity,  and 
hopefulness  which  he  showed  in  the  darkest 
hours.  Nations  respond  to  the  appeal  which 
such  a  man  makes  to  their  best  instincts.  He 
typifies  for  the  moment  whatever  is  highest  in 
them. 

Unhappily,  with  nations  as  with  individuals, 
there  is  apt  to  be  a  relapse  from  these  loftier 
moods  into  the  old  common  ways  when  selfish 
interest  and  trivial  pleasures  resume  their  sway. 
There  comes  a  sort  of  reaction  from  the  stress 
of  virtue  and  strenuous  high-soaring  effort. 
Everything  looks  gray  and  dull.  The  divine 
light  has  died  out  of  the  sky.  This,  too,  is  an 
oft-repeated  lesson  of  European  history.  Yet 
the  reaction  and  decline  are  not  inevitable. 
When  an  individual  man  has  been  raised  above 
himself  by  some  spiritual  impulse,  he  is  some- 
times able  to  hold  the  ground  he  has  won.  His 
will  may  have  been  strengthened.  He  has 
learnt  to  control  the  meaner  desires.  The 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

impulse  that  stirred  him  is  not  wholly  spent, 
because  the  nobler  thoughts  and  acts  which  it 
prompted  have  become  a  habit  with  him.  So, 
too,  with  a  nation.  What  habits  are  to  the 
individual  man,  that,  to  a  nation,  are  its  Tra- 
ditions. They  are  the  memories  of  the  Past 
turned  into  the  standards  of  the  Present.  High 
traditions  go  to  form  a  code  of  honour,  which 
speaks  with  authority  to  the  sense  of  honour. 
Whoever  transgresses  that  code  is  felt  to  be 
unworthy  of  the  nation,  unfit  to  hold  that  place 
in  its  respect  and  confidence  which  the  great 
ones  of  the  days  of  old  have  held.  Pride  in  the 
glorious  foretime  of  the  race  and  in  its  heroes 
sustains  in  the  individual  man  who  is  called 
to  public  duty,  the  personal  pride  which  makes 
him  feel  that  all  his  affections  and  all  his  emo- 
tions stand  rooted  in  the  sense  of  honour,  which 
is,  for  the  man  and  for  the  nation,  the  founda- 
tion of  all  virtue. 

We  have  seen  in  our  own  time,  in  the  people 
of  Japan,  a  striking  example  of  what  the  pas- 
sionate attachment  to  a  national  ideal  can  do 
in  war  to  intensify  the  sense  of  duty  and  self- 
sacrifice.  A  similar  example  is  held  up  to  us 
52 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

by  those  who  have  recorded  the  earlier  annals 
of  Rome.  The  deepest  moral  they  teach  is  the 
splendid  power  which  the  love  of  Rome  and  the 
idea  of  what  her  children  owed  to  her  exercised 
over  her  great  citizens,  enabling  them  to  set 
shining  examples  of  devotion  to  the  city  which 
the  world  has  admired  ever  since.  Each  exam- 
ple evoked  later  examples  in  later  generations, 
till  at  last  in  a  changed  community,  its  upper 
class  demoralized  by  wealth  and  power  even 
more  than  it  was  torn  by  discord,  its  lower 
classes  corrupted  by  the  upper  and  looking  on 
their  suffrage  as  a  means  of  gain,  the  ancient 
traditions  died  out.  Whoever,  studying  the 
conditions  of  modern  European  democracies, 
sees  the  infinite  fatalities  which  popular  govern- 
ment in  large  countries  full  of  rich  men  and  of 
opportunities  for  acquiring  riches,  offers  for 
the  perversion  of  government  to  private  selfish 
ends,  will  often  feel  that  those  European  States 
which  have  maintained  the  highest  standard 
of  civic  purity  have  done  it  in  respect  of  their 
Traditions.  Were  these  to  be  weakened,  the 
fabric  might  crumble  into  dust. 

Every  new  generation  as  it  comes  up  can 

53 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

make  the  traditions  which  it  finds  better  or 
worse.  If  its  imagination  is  touched  and  its 
emotions  stirred  by  all  that  is  finest  in  the  his- 
tory of  its  country,  it  learns  to  live  up  to  the 
ideals  set  before  it,  and  thus  it  strengthens  the 
best  standards  of  conduct  it  has  inherited  and 
prolongs  the  reverence  felt  for  them. 

The  responsibility  for  forming  ideals  and 
fixing  standards  does  not  belong  to  statesmen 
alone.  It  belongs,  and  now  perhaps  more 
largely  than  ever  before,  to  the  intellectual 
leaders  of  the  nation,  and  especially  to  those 
who  address  the  people  in  the  universities  and 
through  the  press.  Teachers,  writers,  journal- 
ists, are  forming  the  mind  of  modern  nations 
to  an  extent  previously  unknown.  Here  they 
have  opportunities  such  as  have  existed  never 
before,  nor  in  any  other  country,  for  trying  to 
inspire  the  nation  with  a  love  of  truth  and 
honour,  with  a  sense  of  the  high  obligations 
of  citizenship,  and  especially  of  those  who  hold 
public  office. 

Of  the  power  which  the  daily  press  exerts 
upon  the  thought  and  the  tastes  of  the  people 
through  the  matter  it  scatters  among  them, 

54 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

and  of  the  grave  import  of  the  choice  it  has 
always  and  everywhere  to  make  between  the 
serious  treatment  of  public  issues  and  that 
cheap  cynicism  which  so  many  readers  find 
amusing,  there  is  no  need  to  speak  here.  You 
know  better  than  I  do  how  far  those  who  direct 
the  press  realize  and  try  to  discharge  the 
responsibilities  which  attach  to  their  power. 

The  observer  who  seeks  to  discern  and  esti- 
mate the  forces  working  for  good  or  evil  that 
mark  the  spirit  and  tendencies  of  an  age,  finds 
it  easiest  to  do  this  by  noting  the  changes  which 
have  occurred  within  his  own  memory.  To-day 
everyone  seems  to  dwell  upon  the  growth  not 
only  of  luxury,  but  of  the  passion  for  amuse- 
ment, and  most  of  those  who  can  look  back 
thirty  or  forty  years  find  in  this  growth  grounds 
for  discouragement.  I  deny  neither  the  fact  nor 
the  significance  of  the  auguries  that  it  suggests. 
But  let  us  also  note  a  hopeful  sign  manifest 
during  the  last  twenty  years  both  here  and  in 
England.  It  is  the  diffusion  among  the  edu- 
cated and  richer  classes  of  a  warmer  feeling  of 
sympathy  and  a  stronger  feeling  of  responsi- 
bility for  the  less  fortunate  sections  of  the 

55 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

community.  There  is  more  of  a  sense  of  broth- 
erhood, more  of  a  desire  to  help,  more  of  a 
discontent  with  those  arrangements  of  society 
which  press  hardly  on  the  common  man  than 
there  was  forty  years  ago.  This  altruistic  spirit 
which  is  now  everywhere  visible  in  the  field 
of  private  philanthropic  work,  seems  likely  to 
spread  into  the  field  of  civic  action  also,  and 
may  there  become  a  new  motive  power.  It  has 
already  become  a  more  efficient  force  in  legisla- 
tion than  it  ever  was  before.  We  may  well  hope 
that  it  will  draw  more  and  more  of  those  who 
love  and  seek  to  help  their  fellow-men  into 
that  legislative  and  administrative  work  whose 
opportunities  for  grappling  with  economic  and 
social  problems  become  every  day  greater. 

Here  in  America  I  am  told  in  nearly  every 
city  I  visit  that  the  young  men  are  more  and 
more  caring  for  and  bestirring  themselves  to 
discharge  their  civic  duties.  That  is  the  best 
news  one  can  hear.  Surely  no  country  makes  so 
clear  a  call  upon  her  citizens  to  work  for  her  as 
yours  does.  Think  of  the  wide-spreading  results 
which  good  solid  work  produces  on  so  vast 
a  community,  where  everything  achieved  for 
56  ' 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

good  in  one  place  is  quickly  known  and  may 
be  quickly  imitated  in  another.  Think  of  the 
advantages  for  the  development  of  the  highest 
civilization  which  the  boundless  resources  of 
your  territory  provide.  Think  of  that  principle 
of  the  Sovereignty  of  the  People  which  you 
have  carried  further  than  it  was  ever  carried 
before  and  which  requires  and  inspires  and, 
indeed,  compels  you  to  endeavour  to  make  the 
whole  people  fit  to  bear  a  weight  and  discharge 
a  task  such  as  no  other  multitude  of  men  ever 
yet  undertook.  Think  of  the  sense  of  fraternity, 
also  without  precedent  in  any  other  great 
nation,  which  binds  all  Americans  together  and 
makes  it  easier  here  than  elsewhere  for  each 
citizen  to  meet  every  other  citizen  as  an  equal 
upon  a  common  ground.  One  who,  coming 
from  the  Old  World,  remembers  the  greater 
difficulties  the  Old  World  has  to  face,  rejoices 
to  think  how  much,  with  all  these  advantages, 
the  youth  of  America,  such  youth  as  I  see 
here  to-night  in  this  venerable  university,  may 
accomplish  for  the  future  of  your  country. 
Nature  has  done  her  best  to  provide  a  founda- 
tion whereon  the  fabric  of  an  enlightened  and 

57 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  OBSTACLES 

steadily  advancing  civilization  may  be  reared. 
It  is  for  you  to  build  upon  that  foundation. 
Free  from  many  of  the  dangers  that  surround 
the  States  of  Europe,  you  have  unequalled 
opportunities  for  showing  what  a  high  spirit  of 
citizenship  —  zealous,  intelligent,  disinterested 
—  may  do  for  the  happiness  and  dignity  of 
a  mighty  nation,  enabling  it  to  become  what 
its  founders  hoped  it  might  be  —  a  model 
for  other  peoples  more  lately  emerged  into  the 
sunlight  of  freedom. 


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